Colonial Era (1733-1775)

Black and white photograph of a young African American boy standing next to a cow in a fenced pasture. — Julia King Collection – boy with cow https://dlg.usg.edu/record/midm_jkic_682

In partnership with the Midway Museum, the Digital Library of Georgia has just made the Julia R. King Collection available online.

King (1863–1952) was a descendant of the Roswell King (1765–1844) family of Georgia plantation owners and managers who owned land, property, and enslaved people across Georgia dating back to the 1700s.

The collection includes essential documents related to slavery, including estate appraisals and inventories that include the first names of enslaved African Americans. It will be of particular interest to those doing family research on people enslaved in Liberty County, Georgia.

Stacy Ashmore Cole, the creator of “TheyHadNames.net: African Americans in Early Liberty County Records, secretary of the Midway Museum Board of Governors, and president of the Coastal Georgia Genealogical Society, describes the importance of these records.

“The Midway Museum’s Julia R. King Collection contains essential references to enslaved people unavailable elsewhere.

These documents will interest them and others who have not yet discovered their ancestry.

The study of these enslaver families, including the Kings, is critical to Liberty County African American genealogical and historical research.

They had a long tradition of keeping enslaved people within their families through inheritance, lending, and gifting, including down the white female lines. Because of this, the only way to trace a particular enslaved person is often through probate and enslaving family documents.

The small size of the collection and its relative geographical remoteness have made it difficult for academic researchers to prioritize. The Midway Museum is also in an area vulnerable to hurricanes.

Digitization ensures that we preserve these materials and make them easily accessible for future generations.”

View the entire collection online

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About the Midway Museum

Since its founding, the Midway Museum has been supported by the descendants of the Midway Church members, who have provided 18th- and 19th-century family heirlooms, documents, books, genealogical lineages, and heirloom furnishings, paintings, and artifacts. Many Midway Church descendants still live in Liberty County and coastal Georgia, serve on the Board of Governors, and visit during the Midway Church’s annual Homecoming. Visit themidwaymuseum.org/

About the Digital Library of Georgia

The Digital Library of Georgia is an award-winning GALILEO initiative housed at the University of Georgia Libraries. With the state’s cultural heritage organizations, the DLG shares Georgia’s history online for free through its websites. The project supports its partner organizations by offering free and low-cost services. The DLG also serves as Georgia’s service hub for the Digital Public Library of America and as the home of the Georgia Newspaper Project, the state’s historic newspaper preservation project.

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Selected images from the collection:

Black and white image of an African American man standing in a patchy grass yard surrounded by several dogs with trees and a large body of water in the background.

Image courtesy of Midway Museum

Title : Julia King Collection – Man with Hands.

https://dlg.usg.edu/record/midm_jkic_704

Letter detailing an exchange of enslaved people between Mary Maxwell and Julia R. King, 1842.

Image courtesy of Midway Museum

Title : Exchange of Slaves between Mary Maxwell and Julia R. King, 1842.

https://dlg.usg.edu/record/midm_jkic_282-53

Today, October 15, the Digital Library of Georgia is thrilled to announce the Georgia Open History Library launch from our partners at the University of Georgia Press.

The collection is now available in our Georgia portal and through other public outlets, including:

The Georgia Open History Library is an open-access selection of single-authored scholarly titles and two multivolume series and primary documents going back to the founding of Georgia as a colony up to statehood and beyond.

It is important to note that new forewords written by contemporary historians were commissioned by UGA Press for each volume in this collection, adding important current scholarly context to these materials.

44 individual volumes focusing on the colony and eventual state of Georgia cover the following topics:

UGA Press Director Lisa Bayer notes: “As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary in 2026, these online resources about the thirteenth colony will help students, teachers, and all citizens to better understand the diversity and complexity of our early national history.”

Funded by the NEH Humanities Open Book Program, the Georgia Open History Library is a project of the UGA Press in partnership with the UGA Libraries, Georgia Humanities, the New Georgia Encyclopedia, the Georgia Historical Society, the Digital Library of Georgia, the Willson Center for Arts and Humanities at UGA, and the Atlanta History Center.

About the University of Georgia Press:

Since its founding in 1938, the primary mission of the University of Georgia Press has been to support and enhance the University’s place as a major research institution by publishing outstanding works of scholarship and literature by scholars and writers throughout the world. The UGA Press is the oldest and largest book publisher in the state, currently publishes 60–70 new books a year, and has a long history of publishing significant scholarship, creative and literary works, and books about the state and the region for general readers. To learn more about the UGA Press and its publications, authors, and events, visit www.ugapress.org.

Tag: Colonial Era (1733-1775)

Family Papers Documenting The Lives Of Enslaved People In Liberty County, Georgia, Dating Back To The 1700s, Are Now Available Online.

The Georgia Open History Library launches today!